I recieved a piece of e-mail from a textfiles.com user going by the nom de plume
of "Captain Anarchy", asking me to help stop the common misperception of the word
"Anarchy" in the BBS and Internet worlds. I initially balked at the idea, but as
time goes on, I do suppose there's room for casual observers to get the wrong idea,
so let's talk about it.

Textfiles.com has an "Anarchy" section, wherein there are a very large range of
files dealing with destruction,
mischief,
mayhem, and general troublemaking. In
some cases, the writers simply give you very large lists of
horrible things to
do to the neighborhood around you, while others go as far as listing ingredients
for incendiaries they wish you to build (and which any reasonable person would
never do). Throughout this section, the writers will often refer to themselves
as "Anarchists" and what they're practicing as "Anarchy".

In his book "The Hacker Crackdown", author Bruce Sterling touches on the heavy
preponderance of these destructive textfiles and is at a loss to explain them
beyond an interest by Hackers in "Forbidden Knowledge", and leaves it with a pretty
clever twist about this desire to trade information representing a shift
in society, and so on.

Personally, I believe it to be an expression of power. If you read into them,
these files represent huge
acts of force that the typical young teenager might
not personally be able to experience, but through the typical ups and downs
of these painful years, might want to. Or at least know they could if they
really wanted to. Handling the pressures of teenage years are that much easier
if you think you know more than you're supposed to.

As I've mentioned in a speech I gave at DEFCON in 1998, textfiles can trace
their existence back to Abbie Hoffman and the
Youth International Party
Line,
which became the
Technological Assistance
Party (TAP) and which gave way to
2600 Magazine in the early 1980s. Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Book" reads with
all the humor, prodding, profanity and clear-eyed instructions of the best
of the later BBS-era textfiles. Abbie, however, was one of the most celebrated
of the protesting, government-shaking youths of the time, and his book goes
far beyond mere instructions to a sort of manifesto of how to bring about the
destruction of this oppressive state atmosphere he saw crushing the country.

Somehow, in the move from the revolutionary thoughts of the 1960's through to
the technology explosion of the 1980's, these pure ingredient lists of wanton
destruction and danger got linked and wrapped up with the idea of protest and
fighting against the
oppressive all-powerful
state, and someone decided to
refer to them as "Anarchy" files.

I won't pretend to be an expert, or even a dabbling authority on the concept of
Anarchy as a political system. As I understand it from my days of working as an
artist for the Zine known as "Factsheet Five", Anarchy as a political system is
an attempt to keep out a vast, overseeing government, and instead focus on the
cooperation of smaller collectives towards an ideal society. Some anarchists wish
for the abolition of all government, replacing it with a shared authority by
these smaller collectives, while others have tried to bring Anarchist ideas and
approaches to the current systems of government.

The point is, the concept of "Anarchy" as portrayed in these files is not in
any way related to these political movements, which exist on their own merits.
The dictionary definition of Anarchy, which is "An Absence of Government", may
or may not be an ideal situation, but it's honestly not a part of the tone and
ideas of the writers of these textfiles. If you feel like taking a real logical
stretch, you might be able to argue that the files advocate the destruction of
the current order to leave a vacuum of power. Then, this vacuum of power could
be filled with a more radical/preferable system of governing or self-governing.
How this could possibly be achieved by
screwing with the
ketchup packets of a McDonalds, of course, is beyond me.

I often recieve correpondence from
people who wrote
these files. More often than
not, these writers are actually rather embarassed at their writings and ask me
if it's entirely necessary for them to be still online. I don't believe in
burying the past, but I do share their concern about two groups taking these
files seriously: Young minds who think that this sort of explosives construction
actually happened years ago and they just missed the fun, and groups of
self-righteous "Universal Parents" who might point to these collections of files
as serious attempts to foment revolution or scar the minds of the young. Both
of these groups are entirely misguided.

It might need to be said, if you've previously thought otherwise, that the
1980's were not a time of wanton, spectacular explosions raining down from
suburban neighborhoods all across the country. While no doubt people blew
things up, it wasn't the natural order of things and people were no doubt
arrested or fined heavily for doing so. No great social change took place as
a result of criminal mischief. There have been some issues with the massive
amounts of corporate mergers, however. We're still feeling the effects of
that. Otherwise, pretty smooth sailing.

As for the idea that this collection exists in some way to poison the minds
of youth, well, these files were WRITTEN by youth. Even a cursory view of the
files reveal all the badly-written phrases, poor spelling, and
near-myopic
perspective of teenage authors going for shock value or to wave the biggest
stick in the playground. These are hardly the tools used by predators
to ensnare children; much preferable ones are the uniforms of authority or
the latest editions of school textbooks.

If the idea of learning more about Anarchy as a system of government interests
you, then simply use a search engine to find pages entitled
"ANARCHY FAQ" or
"ANARCHY SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT" and see what pops back at you. It probably
won't mention
smashing mailboxes
anywhere in it.